Something a lot of people have campaigned for
transparency when it comes to this data. People have filed FOI requests, including GB News as well
and been told by the Home Office, essentially, take too much resources, too much time to collate all this data
and put it all together in a box for you. Seems as though it is now happening. Your thoughts
Well, I welcome it. I've long argued that we need this data
I'm slightly old-fashioned. I'm an old-fashioned Social Democrat on this. I think the public has a right to know. It's very legitimate that we should know this
And the second reason why we should know it is that you can't actually make evidence-based policy without the evidence, can you
So I think from Yvette Cooper's point of view, she needs to know because she can't make policy if she doesn't have the data in front of us
So I think it's good. I think she has. I think there has been somewhat of a cover up for years on this
And I think we need to thank certain MPs. And obviously, GB News, you've done your bit
But Neil O'Brien and Rupert Lowe and Nick Timothy have pressed this again and again
And Jenrick's pressed it as well. We need to know. I think the public has a right to know
What do you think could actually change when it comes to migration policy off the back of data like this Say we found out that some country or other had far higher rates of crime
Should we sanction that country? Should we have a specific ban on visas for citizens of that country
How should this sort of data inform policy? Well, if you found out, Tom, that a particular population from a particular country was disproportionately criminal, massively so
then it would be very foolish, wouldn't it, to continue high migration rates from that country
I think to not do that is just totally irrational. But in fact, what we've had is a situation where we've lost control of the border on the south coast
the country's economic model has been addicted to very, very high, low wage, low skilled migration
for years, but we haven't had the data to look at it seriously. So criminality is one aspect
Another aspect, which I think is absolutely vital that the country open up so the citizen can see
it is net contributions per migrant population migrant class I think that is another bit of information that you need to have some sort of league table you need to have some handle on what sort of contribution the person is likely to make on the basis of their population level
And if you don't have that, you can't make good policy. And yes, to answer your question directly
do I think that we should be more discriminating if we have high criminality amongst certain groups
Yes, of course we should. It would be crazy not to. people on the left or who are pro immigration will probably say that then you're tarring everyone
with the same brush so what if it you know one group is overrepresented in a certain crime that
shouldn't mean that someone else should suffer as a result and that this would take us down a very
dangerous path where we're just picking and choosing based on the crimes that
others have committed. What would you say to that, William? Well, we're governed by people that claim to be discriminating anyway. So, you know
the Tories always went on about we need high skilled migration, we need the skills we need
Well, that's a form of discrimination, isn't it? You're looking at people that fulfill certain
criterias that you're looking for. I think there's nothing wrong in a democracy, a social democracy
doing this I think indeed it rational not to do it And I think that one of the reasons I very keen on particularly the net contribution the net fiscal contribution figures being published
is that there was a similar report produced, you may know about it, by Jan van der Beek and his
team at Amsterdam University a couple of years ago, on the net contribution of different migrant
classes. Now, just to summarize that, you've got some forms of migration into Holland, they've got
the figures from East Asian countries like Japan and South Korea, which were net, made net contributions
a lifetime net contribution of over 100,000 euros. There are some categories which that team
estimated sub-Saharan migrant application for, you know, migration, which was down at sort of
minus 630,000 euros. That's pretty much half a million quid a pop. Now, I've long argued that
you know, the craziness down at the South Coast, if you have 700 people arriving unsolicited
undocumented each day sometimes, I think it's not unreasonable to assume that those 700 people will cost your country
350 million over their lifetimes. And if that's the case, I think the citizens have a right to know
and then we have a right to challenge the politicians that are in charge of this
to ask them what the hell they're doing